Established in Havana in the year 1845, Partagás is one of the oldest cigar brands. In 1845 Don Jaime Partagás y Ravelo set up his own factory, Real Fábricas de Tobaco Partagás, after his long term employment in the Cuban tobacco business. The factory is located at 60 Industria Street, Havana. The name of the Cuban cigar factory translates to ‘Partagás Royal Tobacco Factory’, chosen because Jaime supplied Asian and European nobles with cigars. Don Jaime had some of the best tobacco at his disposal as he owned a large amount of the greatest tobacco plantations in Vuelta Abajo, Cuba. This therefore meant some of the best plantations in the world belonged to him. Owning such valuable plantations meant that he could choose from the finest tobaccos, making the brand very successful. Don Jaime has experimented with multiple fermenting and aging processes for harvested tobacco and was also the first to hire a lector to read to workers in his factory as they rolled cigars.

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Somewhere between 1864 and 1866, Don Jaime was murdered on one of his plantations. It was thought that a jealous rival committed the murder over a love affair that Don Jaime was in. Jaime’s son, Jose Partagás took over the business at this point. The factory and brand were later sold to Jose A. Bance, a banker who then re-sold the factory and brand. Cifuentes, Fernández y Cia were the ones who bought it in the year 1900, the company was run by Ramon Cifuentes and Don Jose Fernandez. In the year of 1916, Fernandez left the firm and Cifuentes in the search of a new partner to go into business with. Ramon ended up joining with Francisco Pego Pita to form the new firm of Cifuentes, Pego y Cia. In 1927 the firm acquired the rights to the Ramon Allones cigar brand. Shortly after this, the factory began to produce a brand named after its owner: Cifuentes.

In 1938 Cifuentes passed away with Pego’s death following 2 years later in 1940 which left the Cifuentes in full control of the brand, factory and fields. For some reason Pego’s heirs/family did not claim for anything at all, it is still wondered why this was the case. The company renamed to Cifuentes y Cia to reflect the fact it was just Ramon in charge. 1954 was the year that the Cifuente family acquired 2 new brands, both La Gloria Cubana and Bolivar from Jose F. Rocha and shifted production over to their own factory. The Partagás factory was among the largest exporters of Cuban cigars in 1958, with just the H. Upmann factory being bigger. In fact Partagas exported over 25% of all tobacco goods exported from Cuba.

Partagás has been by far one of the most popular cigar brands in terms of sales, with reported sales of approximately 10 million cigars per annum in the mid 1990’s. Both before and after the revolution, Partagás has been one of the most revered cigar brands. The Partagás factory in Havana, now called ‘Francisco Perez Germán’ factory, still accounts for a large chunk of the annual Partagás cigar production. In fact it is also a popular place for tourists to visit in the present day.

Ever since Limited Edition cigars were introduced, Partagas have released multiple cigars:

Buy your Partagas cigars from Turmeaus and you can be assured you are receiving the finest grade of tobacco as your cigars will be personally checked and packed by one of our Hunters & Frankau trained sales team. We check top and bottom layers of cigars for wrapper colour, cigar condition and of course any signs of infestation. Rest assured when you buy Havana cigars from Turmeaus... you are buying the finest quality cigars available anywhere in the world!